Piano fall-board.



H. B. TODD.

m0 FALL BOARD. 7 APPLICATION FILED AUG. "I 1912.

1,139,926, Patented May 18, 1915." I

2 SHEETSSHEET 1.

INVENTOR WITNESSES H. B. TODD.

PIANO FALL BOARD.

APPLICATION FILED AUG. I, I9I2.

Patented May 18, 1915.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

FIG. 3

I I I I I l I I I l I I I I I I I I l I I l l I I snow wow THE NOflkIS PETERS C0,. PHO10LITHO" WASHINGTON. D- C.

HAROLD B. TODD, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

PIANO FALL-BOARD.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 18, 1915.

Application filed August 1, 1912. Serial No. 712,636.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HAROLD B. TODD, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Piano Fall- Boards, of which the following is a specification.

The purpose of my invention is to reduce the space occupied by the fall board and back board, preferably amovable back board of a piano, particulary where intended for player piano use where used in upright pianos.

A further purpose of my invention is to provide for accessibility of operating levers above a piano-key-board by a door closing an opening in a board back of or above the fall board, preferably forming the opening in a movable back board.

A further purpose of my invention is to cover the door through which the player piano control levers are accessible by the fall board when the piano is being played by the keys, preferably hinging the door axially in line with the fall board hinge.

Further purposes of my invention will appear in the specification and claims hereof.

I have preferred to illustrate my invention by one form thereof, which I have determined in actual use to be simple, inexpensive and efi'ective and which at the same time well illustrates the principles involved.

Figures 1 and 2 are transverse sections of the fall board parts and adjoining frame parts of a piano on line wm of Fig. 8 showing my invention in its preferred form with the fall board in lowered and raised positions respectively. Fig. 3 is a broken front elevation of an upright piano case to which my invention has been applied.

Where automatic piano players are built into pianos, particularly upright pianos which construction I have intended to designate by the expression player pianos, the distance in a direction across the piano from the front to the back, which I here call the depth required by the back board and fall board for their positions and movement has added considerably to the depth of the piano and has proved quite objectionable because the piano depth is necessarily somewhat large to provide for the player construction. In many pianos this has resulted in the piano depth exceeding the normal width of door openings causing additional difficulty and expense in deliveries. In other upright pianos the thickness of the posts at the back of the piano has been sacrificed With a view to maintaining reasonable piano depth, with the result that the frame of the piano has been seriously weakened, and, in many instances, has warped greatly.

The backboard, normally carrying the name plate, is preferably movable in a rearward and downward direction in my construction. I aim to avoid the difficulties above and to fit the fall board and the backboard within a total depth about equal to the thickness of the two boards. WVith this construction the location of the boards and the movement of the fall board will not require any increase of the depth of the piano Whatever, being accommodated in whatever depth is required for sufficient key length.

I secure uniform appearance of the front of the piano beneath the shelf board whether the fall board be up or down, since the fall board when up has its front surface in substantially the same position as that of the front surface of the back board when the fall board is down.

Inplayer pianos there is also a great advantage in placing the controlling levers for the functioning of the player piano, to rewind and to produce the various changes in volume, etc., above the keys and close to them, as the connections with the player action are much simplified and the levers or connections can be mounted upon the player action, largely if not entirely, when the latter is constructed, reducing the expense and greatly simplifying the assemblage of the piano parts. Combinations including the player piano levers are claimed by me in an application copending herewith, Serial No. 713,697, filed by me Aug. 7, 1912, for control lever mounting for player pianos.

I illustrate the controlling levers 1, 2, 3

and 4:, keys 5, and front strip 6, as well as a key strip 7 to which my fall board is secured, conventionally in the figures. I also use any desired form of sheaf board 8, which, in the illustration, is provided with an overhang 9 conveniently approximately equal in depth to the overhang 10 of the fall board 11 when it is in its raised position, Fig. 2.

I prefer to mount the back board 12 so as to be movable and to move into substantially parallel positions so as to require as little space for a given total movement of all the parts as possibe. In the illustration I have pivoted the board 12 about the axis 18 fixed with respect to the block 14: on the back of the board 12. This axis is movable, however, with a link 15 through which the pivot pin passes. The link is pivoted at its opposite end at 16 and is separated from the piano side by a filler piece 16 shown in dotted lines. I duplicate this construction at the opposite side of the piano so as to provide two link guides supporting the upper part of the board 12. These, together with the hinge connection between the lower outer edge of part 12 and the part 11, result in substantial parallelism between the two positions of the board varying with the position of the fall board, whether up or down. These links 15 guide and support the upper part of the back board into and in its several positions.

I pivot the lower front edge of the back board, as at 17, at approximately the upper rear edge of the fall board 11 viewed in the lowered (closed) position, so that the fall board, pivoted at its lower rear edge 18, (closed position) shall swing the lower end of the back board at the same time that the upper part of the back board is guided about the arc of movement of the link 15. The two positions of the back board are preferably nearly parallel but may be varied in either direction by change in the length of link 15 or the relative positions of its pivot points.

For convenience I have used a common plate 19 for one member of each of the two hinges 17 and 18, and I have shown the parts as retained in position by screws 2O20 I have provided an opening 21 above the keyboard and, preferably, below the shelf board, so that the player-piano-controllevers 1, 2, 3 and 4 may be placed upon or in close and convenient relation with the player piano actions and be accessible above the keys, whether the part within which the opening is provided, here board 12, be movable or not and whatever its contour. I have closed this opening by a door 22 having handle 22, which door, in the embodiment shown, cooperates with both of the boards shown, being carried by the fall board and fitting the opening 21 within the back door board.

The door 22 is hinged in line with the hinges joining boards 11 and 12, in the illustration. I recognize that the door 22 would have a considerable part of its advantage as a closure of the opening whether its hinge was in line with the hinges joining the fall board and the board 12 back of it or not, and that the fall board when in raised (open) position covers the door 22.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is 1. An upright piano case having a pivoted fall board, a backboard hinged to the fall board and having an opening extending a part of the height of the backboard, beginning at the horizontal edge adjacent to the fall board, and a door for the backboard opening.

2. An upright piano case having a hinged flat topped fall board adapted to cover the piano keys, a backboard hinged at its lower front edge to the upper back edge of the fall board, as it rests in its lowered position substantially in the plane of the flat top, and a guide for the backboard so that movement of the fall board causes guided movement of the backboard.

3. An upright piano casing having a fall board support, a flat topped fall board hinged thereto substantially in the plane of the fall boards lower rear edge when in lowered position, a back board hinged at its front edge to the fall board substantially in the plane of the flat top of the fall board and at the rear thereof when in lowered position and a guide for the upper part of the fall board.

1. An upright piano case having a fall board support, a fall board hinged thereto in proximity to its lower rear edge when its lower front edge to the fall board in proximity to the upper rear edge of the fall board when in lowered position and having an opening, and a door for the opening covered by the fall board when in raised position.

5. An upright piano case having a hinged fall board, a movable backboard hinged to the fall board and a connection pivoted at one end to the upper part of the backboard and at its other end pivoted to fixed parts of the case, automatically shifting the upper end of the backboard as the lower end is shifted by movement of the fall board.

6. An upright piano case having a hinged fall board adapted to cover the piano keys, a backboard hinged at its lower front edge to the upper back edge of the fall board, as it rests in lowered position and a link guide for the backboard so that movement of the fall board causes guided movement of the of connection of the back board and fall bagklioard. h h d f 11 board.

11 an uprig tplano case a mge a board, a backboard hinged to the fall board HAROLD TODD 5 and having an opening extending part of Witnesses:

the height of the backboard, and a door for HELEN I. KAUFFMAN,

the opening hinged in proximity to the line WM. STULL JACKSON.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G. 

